Congo Basin: TRAFFIC features as CBFP Partner of the Month

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) was created at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa to co-ordinate efforts to sustain forest resources in the Congo Basin.

The CBFP has more than 75 partners, including all the Central African countries, governments and government agencies from other regions of the world , international organizations, NGOs, scientific institutions and the private sector. 

CBFP works in close collaboration with the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), the body in charge of co-ordinating regional forest and environmental policy and promoting the conservation and sustainable management of the Congo Basin’s forest ecosystems. 

The reduction of illegal trade in wildlife products, especially ivory and of trade in illegally harvested tropical timber, preventing unsustainable exploitation and improving transparency and governance in trade are key components for the sustainability of the Congo Basin’s forest ecosystem.

These are important issues of concern to COMIFAC and CBFP, who are strongly supported in their efforts to address them in the region by TRAFFIC.

TRAFFIC opened its regional office in Yaoundé, Cameroon in 2008 and in the same year TRAFFIC was admitted as a partner of CBFP. 

Since then, TRAFFIC has conducted a range of activities in Central Africa which have yielded a number of achievements, including:

• Provision of technical support to the COMIFAC Secretariat in drafting, adopting and implementing their Sub-regional Action Plan for Strengthening National Wildlife Law Enforcement (PAPECALF) 2012-2017 in all the COMIFAC countries.
• Supporting the inventory and verification of national ivory stock piles in Gabon and Central African Republic at the request of the respective governments.
• Development of a regional framework for assessing legality of forest operations, timber processing and trade, in collaboration with the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN).
• Enhancement of the capacity of more than 2000 staff from forestry and wildlife law enforcement agencies.
• Production of the first French manual on the implementation of the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) under CITES (ETIS Manual: ETIS programme on monitoring of the illegal trade in ivory and other products of the African elephant: Loxodonta africana as a tool for protecting elephants).
• Development and implementation of a Central African Bushmeat Monitoring System, Central Monitoring System (French acronym: SYVBAC) and support to the Democratic Republic of Congo to elaborate their National Bushmeat Strategy and Action Plan.
• Production of a Training Kit on forest legislation and law enforcement.
• Development of the ‘Framework for Assessing/Verifying legality of forest operations, timber processing and trade in Cameroon, definition of indicators, verifiers and legal notes’.

“TRAFFIC enjoys and cherishes the cordial and productive working relationship with the other partners in CBFP and is looking forward to further successful and enriching collaborations, for the benefit of nature and people in the Congo Basin,” said Paulinus Ngeh, TRAFFIC Regional Director for Central Africa.  

“The selection of TRAFFIC as the partner of the month of August is a clear recognition of our efforts and support in the promotion of the wise use and sustainable management and conservation of the wild resources of this valuable and unique ecosystem.  We are greatly honoured and extend our appreciation to the CBFP for this recognition.”   

The functioning of the CBFP is facilitated by its government partners.  The initial facilitator was the USA from 2003-2004, then followed by France from 2005-2007.  Germany was the facilitator from 2008-2010 and Canada was responsible from 2010-2012.  Facilitation has once again been taken up by the USA for the period 2013-2015. 

Members of the CBFP meet biannually to review progress, share information of major achievements and propose solutions and actions on emerging issues in the region.